Chapter 10
Getting Caught
Damien snuck quietly through the grounds of Dumstrang. Being under the Invisibility Cloak helped, but he still had to be careful. There were Death Eaters everywhere, and not one of them would flinch at the thought of killing a young kid sneaking around the grounds. In his hands he held a map, and a wand. Debbie had charmed the map before he had left, so it worked just like the Maurderer's Map did. Damien could see that Lucius Malfoy was currently in the Headmaster's office, on the fourth floor, while all the students and teachers, including Sirius, were in the basement, in individual cells. After finally finding the front door, Damien sneaked past Avery and Nott, and was inside.
Damien could tell that, from Viktor's description of his home castle back in his fourth year, was true. This was a beautiful castle, with many fireplaces and statues. Most statues were of famous Death Eaters, probably taken from the Malfoy Manor, back in Britian. Looking confused, Damien walked around, avoiding Death Eaters, trying to find the stairs to the basement. Once he found it, he saw who was guarding it.
Lucius Malfoy, in the flesh.
Damien looked at the map, confused. There was one Lucius Malfoy upstairs, and one here. But when Damien's eyes drifted over to the spot where he was standing, there was no name. Damien quietly preformed the refreshing spell, which he had learned from Debbie, but there still was no name. Fervently deciding this must be a fake, Damien went around him, and opened the door cautiously. Once he had slipped past the figure, he sighed with relief, but quickly got back on task. He went downstairs. When he stepped onto the floor, the map suddenly went blank. Damien cursed quietly, and recited the words he had grown used to saying "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good', but to no avail. The map stayed blank, and Damien, frustrated gave up. Damien walked around, carefully avoiding Death Eaters, once again, and soon got to another door. No one was guarding it, so Damien just went right through it.
And gasped at what he saw.
There were little cells, engraved like muggle baseball dugouts, in the wall, and each had two students and/or teachers in it. Damien quietly snuck by, for there were guards guarding every cell. He saw old classmates. Justin Finch-whatstherestofit, Padma Patil, and Ernie Mac-whatever, all locked together in one cell, because Ernie was so small. It had been so long since he had seen them, that he could hardly remember their names. Walking diligently past them, he saw the next cell. There was Hannah Abbot, and Madame Sprout. They were both sleeping, which was completely understandable considering the circumstances. It was the middle of the night.
He snuck up and down the corridors, looking for Ron, Hermione, or Sirius. After about ten minutes, he saw Sirius. He was sitting, his back to Damien, staring at the wall blankly. Damien could tell he was awake, he could see his shoulders shaking with his silent sobs. He gulped loudly, and moved on. A Death Eater narrowed his eyes at him as he walked by. His eye swiveled around in his socket, and he grinned evilly. He started following Damien, inconspicuously.
Damien walked quietly down the next corridor, hoping he would find Ron and Hermione. Every cage had people in it, but none had his two former friends in it. As he walked down corridors, he had a sneaky suspicion that someone was following him. He whirled around, and saw no one. He kept walking, checking back every once in a while. He saw no one, just the black guards, staring off like Dementors. Damien finally reached a passageway that had and ending wall. He decided this must be it, and walked down. Right at the end, he saw them. They were sitting, opposite each other, so that either one was looking at a wall. Damien smiled, remembering the good days. He thought back to his first year, with the troll. His second year, just after He and Ron had gotten out of the Chamber, and Hermione running to them and hugging Harry. His third year, when Hermione had seen the Dementor as Professor McGonagall. And his fourth year, the year before last, dragging Ron and Gabriella up to the surface, and getting called a prat before getting the most points.
He sighed happily, but still wishing he had never been chosen from the Goblet. If that had happened, he would be in that cell with his two best friends, and he would not be out of the cell, saving their butts, once again. He sighed once more, and set off to do what he had come to do. With his wand, he quietly stunned all the guard within eyesight of him. Then, he took off the cloak, and unlocked the door.
"Come on, we need to get out of here!" said as loud as he dared. Hermione looked at him, her beautiful face smudged with dirt and grim. Ron, too looked at him, but unlike Hermione's look of disgust, he had a look of amazement on.
"You came all the way out here, just for us?" Ron's voice cracked, clearly stating that either he was trying not to cry, or he had not gotten over his adolescence yet.
Damien nodded, and urged them out.
"But what about all of the others?" Hermione asked, clearly worried.
"We'll send back help for them, now come on." Damien led the way through the hallways, forgetting that he was not under the safety of an Invisibility cloak. Soon Ron and Hermione's footsteps abruptly stopped, and Damien turned around.
They had just crooked into a long winding way, and once Damien turned around, he saw a guard. Next to him he saw Ron and Hermione, their mouths covered with someone's hand. Damien, seeing Hermione jerking her head towards the end of the hallway, ran down there. He heard the man shooting various curses to try and stop the subterfuge. Damien, as though he had eyes in the back of his head, dodged all of them, and kept running. Soon, he heard a dreaded curse shouted.
"AVADA KEDAVERA!" Damien dove to the ground, and saw the green light go over his head. He tried to get up, and continue running, but in a matter of seconds, he was surrounded by Death Eaters. He lay back down carefully, and someone grabbed him roughly by the arms, and brought him over to the man who seemed to be the boss.
The man seemed to smile in his voice when he said, "Bring the three to a new cell, this one with the high chains." The men bowed to him, and dragged the people away.
Soon, Damien was up in a high balcony, his arms wrapped around a metal bar, and magically forced to stay there. Ron and Hermione were down on the ground, but had mere muggle chains. Damien struggled to force the magical force away, and in the meantime he listened to Ron argue with his friend. They were fighting against various decisions of how to get free.
Damien smiled at their odd ways of getting out. Things such as willing themselves out of the chamber, a type of apparating, but Hermione, always being the smart one, out ruled that one, figuring 'if you can't apparate inside of Hogwarts, you probably can't apparate here' Damien smiled to himself, still trying to force his muscular arms(from Quidditch)from the magical force holding them there. Their next idea was bewitching the Death Eaters' minds to let them go. Ron, for once, ruled this out, saying they didn't have anything to bewitch with.
Finally, Damien pulled his arms free. He was unchaining his legs, when he heard Hermione speak.
"Well, I guess there's nothing we can do. We're stuck, Ron, stuck…"
Damien jumped down. "That's what you think," he said, rubbing the soreness from his arms and legs. Ron and Hermione looked at him, amazed.
"Well, come on, we haven't all day…night…oh, whatever it is" He went over to Ron, and easily opened the chain with a small piece of metal extracted from the wall. He did the same with Hermione, and the eagerly raced to the door. But when they arrived, to their dismay, the door was locked. Hermione slumped to the ground, tears forming in her beautiful chocolate eyes.
"I guess we'll never get out," she said, but Damien, thinking fast, went over to another shadowed wall.
"What's over there?" Ron asked curiously. Damien came out and smiled.
"A dead body," he said mischievously. This made Hermione look even more distraught. Damien continued "of a Veela."
Ron looked up curiously from comforting Hermione, and brought his stocky body over to check it out.
"Hey, and look, there's still some-"he started.
"Hair" Damien finished. Hermione shrugged his shoulders.
"And look, a tree outside. What kind is it?" Ron seemed afraid of saying Damien's name.
"Yew," Damien said, looking excited. Hermione stopped crying, looking interested.
"Veela hair has magical powers…" she said slowly, "and Yew is magical wood! Put them together, and you have…"
"A wand," Damien said simply. He plucked three Veela hairs from the skull, and had Ron help him reach out the window to grab a bunch of wood from the tree. When he had all the ingredients, he stuffed the Veela hair inside the wood, and preformed a simple spell.
"Lumos," He said, and the room lighted up. Ron and Hermione cheered, but, excited, he used the silencing charm to shut them up.
"We have to be quiet," he warned, taking the charm off them. He put together two more rough wands, and handed them to Ron and Hermione, they tested, and the room was filled with flowers, and darkened once again. Damien smiled at their enthusiasm. He placed another silencing charm on the door, and unlocked it. There was another guard outside, and Damien held up his hand. The plan was, on the count of three, they would fire stunning spells, in every direction, and run for the exit. He held up a finger. Then another finger. Once the third finger was held up, Hermione noticed a scar runnin down his arm, looking like a tree branch had been pushed through his entire lower arm. The same thing had happened to Harry the previous year.
She was so wrapped up in her discovery, that she didn't notice Ron and Damien running down the hall. Damien yelled to get her attention.
"Hermione, move!" She snapped into attention, and raced after the two males, remembering how much the French boy's sounded like Harry's… She didn't have time to ponder this, because she had to race to catch up with her friend.
They ran throughout the building, stunning people there, petrifying people here. What a fun game. But, luckily, they made it out if the castle only harmed a little. Hermione wiped blood off her arm, and asked the question she'd been longing to ask.
"Where'd you get that scar?" she was looking at Damien pointedly.
"What scar?" Damien said his voice cracking.
"That scar on your arm," Hermione said, and Ron asked another question just after she finished.
"And why is your voice sounding so weird?"
"Look, I'm just not feeling myself today, ok?" Damien's voice sounded dark and demented. He quickly summoned his broom, and got them on. They flew off, Damien's cover-up spell quickly wearing off. He zoomed through the clouds, not caring if his face got soaked or anything. He knew his hair was turning back to normal, and if he didn't get back to school soon, he'd give away his identity. Miraculously, they got back to Beauxabatons in record time, and raced off to the bathroom. He quickly shut the door and locked himself in.
Back outside, Hermione was pondering his weird behavior. She had also noticed his body form had changed just a little, not to mention his hair growing more and more ruffled, and getting darker. Then it hit her. Harry.
Damien raced to Debbie's dorm. He whipped open the door, and closed it behind him. Debbie sleepily lifted her head up, but shot out of bed when she saw the blood on his face and legs, and him panting heavily.
"What happened, Harry?" she asked.
"Disguise…wore off… run to bath…room, ran…here. We…have to…leave."
"Now?" she asked. Damien nodded, and ran out the door, towards his dorm. Debbie quickly packed up all her things, and ran to Devan and Ben's dorm to share the news.
Damien quickly packed up his things also, and ran to the opposite side of the castle. Soon Debbie, Devan, and Ben ran out the doors, each carrying most likely featherweight trunks, and their own brooms.
"What are they doing here?" Damien asked Debbie accusingly.
"You didn't think you'd leave without your best friends, did you?" Ben asked. Damien smiled, and all four kicked off the ground and flew into the night.